


Loudest At the Dawn

by lordbatty



Category: The Witcher (TV)
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Creatures & Monsters, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Modern: No Powers, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Best Friends, End of Movie Spoilers, F/F, F/M friendship, Gay Male Character, Gen, Geralt & Yen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Injury, M/M, Modern AU, Movie Spoilers, No Lesbians Die, No Sex, Past Character Death, Sea Monsters, Spoilers, The Witcher AU, The Witcher Netflix series, Underwater, Underwater movie AU, Underwater spoilers, end of movie, underwater au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-19
Updated: 2020-01-19
Packaged: 2021-02-27 04:41:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,458
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22321258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lordbatty/pseuds/lordbatty
Summary: Geralt wasn't particularly *good* at lying. But if he was going to pull this off without any kickback from Yen, then he was going to have to be the calmest that he had ever been in his life. This wasn't going to be a happy ending for everyone, but it would be the better ending for the people who deserved it the most.(an 'Underwater' - 2020 AU)
Relationships: Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia/Jaskier | Dandelion, Triss Merigold/Yennefer z Vengerbergu | Yennefer of Vengerberg
Comments: 3
Kudos: 29





	1. Part 1: You Can't Be Afraid

**Author's Note:**

> I've been going The Witcher crazy with wanting to write AUs and have fun with my favorites AND THEN I went and saw 'Underwater' starring Kristen Stewart and now I can't get the two things out of my head and literally the ending works so well for my ships and my love of Yennefer & Geralt friendship. PLUS you know, heroism tropes!
> 
> So be warned if you haven't seen 'Underwater', SPOILERS AHEAD as I am literally doing the end of the movie with these three since it was the most resounding and would work for them. This is also my very first ever The Witcher related work; I knew about it in passing through friends playing the games, reading the books, and cosplaying but I never really delved into seeing if it was something I would enjoy until the Netflix show came out. And I ADORED it and the actors ; so this is absolutely purely based on the Netflix show as that is the very first and only The Witcher related media I have submerged (haha!) myself in.
> 
> So here we go! This will ONLY have two parts (I split the end of the movie up in two parts since it would, from a writer's end personally, work better than one big giant oneshot to post), and I have not written any fanfic in at most the last five months, so this was really exciting and new for me to do.
> 
> Enjoy, and happy reading! ♥

**_* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *_ **

_“Tell me about home for you, Geralt.”_

Bright violet-blue eyes stared at him the moment he opened his own amber colored ones. They nearly bore through him, and that’s what was going to make this entire endeavor harder on them all. 

“Not much to tell, I’m afraid,” Geralt spoke slowly and calmly, as to not give anything away that would lead to preemptively changing his, or anyone else’s minds. He sat cross legged against the clear, and undeniably cool Plexiglas window. Thick enough to sustain the furthest depths of their very demise and then some. But that wasn’t the problem. Geralt wasn’t worried about windows breaking, where pressure and water so powerful would make your insides implode before you could even think to breathe first.

No, Geralt’s mind was focused on another real danger: Lying. He wasn’t particularly good at it, but if he wanted to make this work, he was going to have to summon up all the calm and coolness in his demeanor as humanly possible. Any slight slip of facial expression or tone shift would set her off. Yennefer wasn’t stupid, and Geralt knew that above anything else. His plan was going to be hard to pull off with her headstrong ways.

“Oh come on,” Yennefer scoffed softly with the roll of her eyes and shake of her head. She was, what Geralt called, a ‘standee’. She was always standing around with his arms crossed or at her sides. And right now, she was standing a good foot away from him in the center of the pod room in nothing but a pair of black boy shorts and a sweat-and-water soaked maroon tank top. Her hair was just as equally soaked, starting to form tight curls at the ends where they had been straightened just mere hours before.

And from where she stood, she could both view the man before her and all of the vast darkness of ocean behind him at a 360 degree angle. She showed no fear, but they all knew inside, she was shaking and keeping her eyes peeled for any sign of change from their now still position. She couldn’t possibly understand how in any right mind Geralt could be sitting directly in front of the very peril they had been running from all this time. She couldn’t pinpoint how long exactly it had been from the very first attack, but when you’ve been secluded thousands of miles below the ocean floor, you forgot what day and night even was. Or months, or days, or weeks. Time didn’t exist down here, and seconds always seemed to feel like years. 

“Everyone comes from something. Somewhere,” Yen dropped her crossed arms and sighed deeply, turning her head slightly to the left, eyes locking on the one other still alive but barely body they had on them. Her life long girlfriend and best friend, Triss. Who at the moment, was drifting between consciousness and unconsciousness laying on the coolness and ankle-level water filled floor. She was also sweat and water soaked, stripped down from her heavy duty suit to her dark grey bikinis and bright green tank top that sported a tear at the stomach. Her naturally curly beautiful brown hair splayed out around her in the water like a halo, floating aimlessly in all directions.

Yen felt her heart pull. She knew there wasn’t going to be another way out, and time was short. They hadn’t even opened the doors to the escape pods yet. And Yennefer wasn’t sure what Geralt was waiting for, but she had a nagging feeling in the pit of her stomach that he had something planned. And it wasn’t a good plan, either.

“Nothing much to say other than where I’m from, it’s why I took this job to begin with,” Geralt broke his best friend’s gaze, her head back to looking his way. “I thought it would be better than there. And for a while, it was. But now?” He smirked, shaking his head with a light chuckle mostly to himself. He picked slowly at his fingers, averting his gaze away from Yen, and out towards the nothingness of dark water before him. “Now I’m not so sure. Maybe I should have never left Rivia.”

Yennefer carefully eyed Geralt’s shift in movements and his gaze, trying to pick up on anything that might cause her to act on the suspicions she had. And keeping her gaze set on her friend, Yen slowly took steps backwards where Triss lay and slowly sat down with legs crossed beside her girlfriend. “What were you looking for?”

“Revenge, maybe,” Geralt tugged at his torn up, drenched chocolate brown t-shirt before wiping his forehead down against the sleeve. His long silver-white bleached hair was pulled back into the disaster of a bun at the back of his head, though several wet strands had escaped and framed his sharp jawline almost tauntingly. “Big lot of fat fucking good that did me, though.”

Yennefer smiled sympathetically, casting her eyes down at her lap as she gently stroked Triss’ hair, who had slipped back into a sleep-like unconsciousness. “Am I to assume you mean revenge for Jas then?”

At the mention of his former fiancee, Geralt sharply pulled his eyes in her direction, one of his hands clutching at the necklace hiding beneath his shirt. They had all worked for the same big rig company. Drill and dive for resources meters and meters away from civilization and you’ll not only get a big fat check, but also recognition for being not only an amazing diver, but in whatever field you wasted your life studying and come back a hero to Earth for whatever they were looking for. Not so much anymore. 

Too many people never came back. Too many people reported signs of life that you would never dare to dream of seeing on your average everyday fishing trip or beach vacation. But the company didn’t care. They wanted money, and they wanted to cover up any doubt that they could be successful and not scare the general public. So people died. People were sent to psychiatric hospitals. People were denied interviews, had their paychecks shoved in their faces if they were lucky to return, and told to keep quiet. Geralt had hoped that Jasiker would have been so lucky to have the latter. He would have been satisfied with keeping their mouths shut and living happily elsewhere away from all of it.

“Interpret it how you want, Yen,” Geralt whispered, mostly to himself. His fingers danced achingly around their engagement bands hanging from a black chain.

This plan was definitely going to be a lot harder to convince both Yen and Triss to follow through on. He had to be the calmest, smile, and be as convincing as he had been when he told the very business that killed the love of his life that he was on board for the next dive. 

“We have two dogs,” Yennefer derived the conversation in another direction, for the sake of whatever final time they had. “Triss picked an Australian Shepherd. Named her Alchemy. She’s way into magick and stuff like that. Plus, Al has two different colored eyes, so I guess it was fitting.” She laughed softly, leaning over to give her sleeping girlfriend a kiss on the cheek before getting back up onto her feet, striding over towards Geralt.

“And what about yours?” he asked, sliding over with his legs now slung over the edge of his seat to make room for her. He was grateful in that moment that he was only wearing his work regulated fitted black spandex boxers instead of the breezy loose ones he wore at home. It made for moving around underwater and getting into their suits a lot easier.

Yen sat beside her best friend, pulling her hair around one shoulder and began to section it into threes before aimlessly braiding it, her gaze set dead ahead of her at the still closed escape pod doors. “I got a Bulldog-”

Geralt grinned, despite his brain telling him not to, which ended up being followed by a snort then a laugh that spread all throughout his chest and out of his mouth that interrupted her immediately. “A bulldog? Those little wrinkly fucking rats with big ears?”

“Hey!” Yen scolded with a laugh of her own, releasing her braided hair to deliver a well deserved slap across Geralt’s bicep. “They’re wonderful dogs! Small and lazy. It matches Triss and Alchemy’s crazy hyper activeness!”

“Alright, fine,” holding up his hands in defeat, Geralt laughed for a second time before leaning back against the glass behind them. “I can’t _wait_ to hear what you decided to call it.”

If looks could kill, Geralt would have been dead by his best friend instead of by water pressure or the lurking creatures that surrounded nearby. “For your information, I named him Mage. It only seemed fitting that I match the other dog in the house,” Yen stuck her tongue out, flipping her braid over her shoulder. “And you shouldn’t be talking. You have a goddamn horse stabled at home named Roach, so I wouldn’t be so critical of pet names around here if I were you.”

“You’ve got a point,” Geralt smiled softly, casting his amber eyes back out to the darkness behind him, shifting his position to face the world he knew he wouldn’t be leaving behind. “Stay with Triss, would ya? Get some rest. I’ll keep an eye on things.”

Yennefer frowned, creasing her eyebrows together. Something in his tone didn’t sit right with her, and as much as she wanted to argue, she knew better. “You need some sleep too, you know.”

She was right. But Geralt knew that if they were going to ever get out of here, minus himself, he was going to have to stay as alert as his brain would allow. “Who’s the mechanical engineer here, Yen?”

“Yooouuu,” Yen sighed with annoyance, rolling her eyes and lolling her head back. “You know, I might be the biochemist here and know more about what’s down here than most people, but that doesn’t mean losing out on sleep, you know.” She hopped down away from the window with a hearty double slap against Geralt’s back as she slowly made her way back towards Triss . . . and the doors of their escape out of here.

Yennefer didn’t know what her long time friend was waiting for, but her hand was itching to open those doors herself. 

Geralt was hiding something. And she had a feeling that it wasn’t going to be the happy ending they were all so desperately hoping for.


	2. We Can find Our Place

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Let's light this shit up..."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is quite honestly the fastest I've written and completed a quick fic in a single day in just a couple of hours. And I am so grateful and proud for that! 
> 
> Hope you enjoyed this heart-string tugging AU adventure with me! Gotta put that Evil Writer's Certificate that I have to good use, you know x'D
> 
> The ending credits for the movie was "The Unknown" by BONNIE X CLYDE and I totally didn't listen to it on repeat while writing Geralt's part at the end, surely not!
> 
> Thank you for reading and with any streak luck, I'll have more (and hopefully less heart wrenching) The Witcher adventures to write about ahead! ♥

**_* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *_ **

_“People, Yen, like to invent monsters and monstrosities. Then they seem less monstrous themselves. That’s what killed Jas.”_

She’d felt like she had been hit with a metal bat. Everything in her body hurt, the large gash on her forehead scabbed over and drenched with water and sweat. There was a dull throbbing behind both of her eyes, and her vision was blurry at best. Her ears felt like they hadn’t been popped in days, her mouth was dry with an old taste of salt water and blood in the back of her throat. And the noises, god the noises, wouldn’t stop ringing in her thoughts. Screams, white noise, sirens, things exploding, water gushing, people choking, people dying, people crying, and in the midst of it all, Geralt and Yennefer screaming at the worst of times, high with anxiety, rage, and despair.

Triss didn’t know how long she’d been out. Truth be told, she didn’t remember much of anything after being separated from Geralt and Calanthe, still attached to Yen as the ocean floor around them became chaotic. She remembered Yen screaming, Geralt and Calanthe barely getting by with Calanthe’s suit rip cord being the only thing keeping them together, and then nothing.

The next thing Triss knew, she was slipping in and out of consciousness, preserving what oxygen in her suit she had left, and there was Yennefer, and there was Geralt. And there was no more Captain Calanthe.

And now suddenly there was screaming again. There were sirens again, there was the familiar pounding behind her eyes. There was blurry vision, and then before she knew what was happening, there was rushing water from somewhere and Geralt coming hazily into her view.

“Triss! Get the fuck up, come on!” Geralt’s voice was a mixture of calm and collected coolness and urgency. Something was wrong, and no matter how many times she heard the sounds around her and he snapped his fingers to get her back, she couldn’t get up. She was exhausted, and even though she wasn’t running on low suit oxygen anymore, the damage had been done enough that medical help was imminent. 

She didn’t know where Yennefer was at that moment, and her body felt ten times heavier than it should be as Geralt hooked his arms up under her armpits and with great staggering, got her up onto her feet, though she knew her body was more lax than helpful.

But Geralt was as strong as any human person Triss knew, and she was petite in nature. The heaviest thing about her was her drenched mass of curls. She couldn’t tell if her legs were moving with Geralt towards the escape pods or not. But there was sound; loud, loud sound and flashing lights and a single large, blinding and blaring computer error on the wall to her left where the third escape pod was.

Or should have been.

“N- no, Y-en, where’s-” Triss mumbled out, her golden-brown eyes half lidded trying to focus on the man turning her around towards an open pod to sit in.

“ _Yen!_ ” Geralt shouted over the sounds of sirens, seeming to Triss almost louder is that was possible. 

Triss felt herself sinking into the comfort of the escape pod’s cushioned seat, head gratefully slamming back against the softness of the head rest. Struggling to open her eyes even more, she managed to avert her out of focus and back in again gaze ahead of her, where she looked past Geralt and onto the window behind him just a couple feet back. 

A gasp caught in her throat, capturing in her peripheral Yennefer dashing to her side but staring head on into what could only be described as one of those monsters you hear about as a kid in fantasy books and wild tales from seamen and fishermen. 

Triss felt herself grab onto her girlfriend’s arm, eyes darting back towards Geralt, who was smiling and saying something to Yennefer as he casually leaned against the opening of her own pod.

“Hey, hey, I’m here, I’m here Triss, it’s okay, we’re gettin’ outta here,” Yen spoke quickly, but encouragingly as she took both hands and kissed them before leaning in. Gently, her girlfriend grasped her head into warm, dirtied up hands, their foreheads touching. 

“I’m gonna make sure you go first, okay?” Yen whispered softly, then planting a kiss on her forehead.

Triss could only nod, though she knew there was something she needed to address to her girlfriend, she was losing all sense of consciousness again. “L-lL-ove you,” was all she could muster up the energy to say, but not before averting her eyes towards Geralt who was still smiling and encouraging for them both to hurry it up.

“D-don’t . . . d-don’t do any-anyth-”

“Triss,” Geralt spoke sternly, reaching over and taking her hand with a smile that didn’t match what his eyes said. “Relax. We’re good, alright? We’re fine, we got three working pods, it’s going to work out. Don’t worry about anything. Just get up there.” She saw him hesitate, almost as if he was wondering if he should say what else was on his mind. And for a moment, between the terrifying sounds outside of the safety of her pod, the blaring alarms, and the rushing waters around them, Triss almost thought that he wasn’t going to say anything more.

“Take care of each other. Alright?” 

With a forceful, near agonizing push of the button, her pod was closed, and before she could count all of the ways this wasn’t right, she was out, both literally and consciously.

*** * ***

Yen was shaking. She didn’t know how long Triss could keep up the state she was in before the rescue team could get to them. But they were going, now, and in the end that’s what they had worked so tirelessly for up to this point.

Her head whipped around behind her with tears pouring down her dirt stained cheeks to look at the behemoth of a monster leering and looming ever closer towards them. They’d already been hit once, and that had been enough for Geralt to make his decision and wake them. It was time to go. These were the stuff nightmares were made of. And this creature . . . whatever this monster far below from the surface of the world they came from, it was the very thing or _things_ that killed off so many of their friends and loved ones. And it was just going to get worse from here.

“Let’s GO!” Geralt shouted, grabbing her arm. He pulled her directly to the opening of the pod that had been beside Triss’, purposefully leaning against it as he pressed the button to block Yen’s view of the empty and red light blinking pod that was left. “Get in.”

Yennefer stared directly into the amber colored eyes of her best friend and even though he was smiling, she could read something wrong. She always could. “N… no you go first. You’re stronger, you can help Triss first and call for the rescue squad and-”

“ _Yen_ ,” Geralt gritted his teeth through the smile, something that told her he was hiding something and pushing for her to listen to him. “Get your ass in the pod.”

Looking back behind her again towards the leering shadow of their demise and the demise of so many others before them, Yen bit the bottom of her lip, more tears forming before looking back to Geralt, finally figuring out the truth that she had hoped would be wrong. “You lied to me.”

“ _Yenn-e-fer_. We don’t have time for this, get in the fucking pod,” he hissed through his teeth, forcing the smile more than ever as he tilted his head towards the opening.

“You knew. You fucking knew! You knew there was only two!” She screamed through the tears, fighting the urge to slam her fist into his shoulder in rage. “Where do you get the _balls_ to lie to me and ask me to leave without you?!”

“Because I have nothing left, Yen!” Geralt grabbed her by the shoulders, inches from her face as his breathing quickened. “You do. You have Triss. And you have your stupid rat mutt. I don’t have anything left. I don’t have Jas anymore. I lived my life. I had my life. You and Triss need to go have yours, do you understand me?”

Yen closed her eyes, a soft sob escaping her mouth as her head hung between them, hands grasping onto Geralt’s arms. “You can’t do this to us. Geralt, I can’t-”

“Yes. You can. And you will,” Geralt gritted his teeth together, mouth forming a thin downturn, the lump in his throat rising. “You’ve been a great friend. Now it’s my turn to be one.” Releasing his grip from her arms, slowly he wrapped both of his large arms around her, squeezing her tightly into a hug that he hoped she would remember even long after he was gone. “Just make sure you get Roach for me.”

A short laugh escaped in between Yennefer’s sobs, her arms wrapping around the man she considered like a brother to her for so long, not able to imagine what her life would be like without him around.

“Get in the pod, Yen,” Geralt sighed heavily, releasing her of the hold.

“It’s not fair,” Yennefer shook her head, shakily stepping into the opening and sinking back into the seat behind her, eyes fixed on the very last time she would ever see or talk to her best friend. “None of this is fair. And none of it has been. You’re only a human, Geralt. You’re not a monster fighter.” Her gaze was intensely focused on him through tears, her jaw clenched as her chin quivered.

Taking in her words, Geralt smiled half-heartedly, shaking his own head before emitting a short laugh. “Well. Life’s rarely fair, isn’t it? And maybe it’s time I _become_ the monster fighter. If nobody else will,” he smirked as he pressed the button to close the pod up, and as he stepped away and said his final, silent goodbyes, he hoped that Yennefer understood what he meant.

*** * ***

_"They took my choice, Geralt. I want it back."_

Life is a series of heartaches and chance. Sometimes you gamble a lot and you win. Sometimes you gamble even just a little bit and you lose everything. Geralt knew that almost better than anyone. Especially now, between Jasiker, between Captain Calanthe and admittedly now Yennefer and Triss. 

That decision alone hadn’t been easy on them, but it was immediately the easiest decision Geralt had ever made. 

And now? Now the second easiest decision in his life was going to be made. He would put an end to all of this, if he could help it. He would expose this project for what it was: a killer of their employees all for the sake of greed, money, and to make a bigger name for themselves than there already was. They didn’t care about what happened _after_ they were all sent off to do the dirty work. They just cared about the payout.

Geralt closed his eyes and took in a deep breath, letting it out as a sign of mild relief. Yennefer and Triss were safe, but there was still work to be done. He was going to be the first and last monster killer the world would never ever know. Yennefer and Triss would retail the story of what happened. They would show proof and have recounted the exact same stories of what lies deep below the surface that so few other survivors also had. Everything would be undone and destroyed, and there would be no choice but to take the clamor for what it was: the truth.

Making his way back towards the very window he and Yennefer were at mere hours ago, Geralt looked out with arms crossed, locking his eyes on the swarming creatures desperately surrounding and trying to break through the glass for him.

Humorously, he scoffed and forced a lopsided smirk at the near ghostly merperson-like creatures before him. “Shame. None of this is your fault. But sometimes . . . we all have a price to pay for the mistakes of others.”

Casting his eyes slowly upwards to the looming, enormous alpha creature made up of thousands if not millions of others that were the cause of every breach, every death, and every word that was told to be covered up by those who stood right where he was right then. “Looks like we both don’t get to win,” he mumbled, never breaking gaze from the terror before him. 

Slowly making his way past the pod in which he would never leave, a very faint flash of green caught the peripheral of Geralt’s vision. It was functional again, but just barely. And as he stood between the command control for that damned drill that got them in this mess in the first place, and a chance to make the pod fully functional and stay green enough for him to join Yennefer and Triss, Geralt knew he had another choice to make. A choice that he wouldn’t be able to take back either way he chose it.

For a few fleeting seconds between the sirens still going off warning of the breach, and water starting to take in more around his bare feet, Geralt darted his eyes between that barely flickering green light to freedom, and the stable control module that would ensure the future of others. Including the two people he allowed freedom over his own.

“ _Fuck!_ ,” Geralt hissed through his tears, running both hands over his face and to the back of his head, allowing more strands from his bun to fall around his face. “Stop feeling, you stupid fuck. Just go.”

He had made the choice. Raising the energy levels of the core engines to the drill would allow them to explode. It would destroy the drill, it would destroy the creatures standing between him and freedom. It would be a way out for everyone.

Gripping the rings at the bottom of his chain, Geralt quickly darted to the controls, his other hand shakily but assuredly logging into the mechanics, splaying open the controls for the engines. His eyes involuntarily closed again, heart pounding heavily in his chest and reaching in volume to his ears. His other hand clenched the rings harder, bringing the fist up to his mouth. 

With a clenched jaw, Geralt kissed his knuckles and opened his eyes back up before one by one, he began to raise each engine level. “Fine. Let's go, you fuck. I’m about to make your whole damn day.”

Hands dropping slowly to his side, the lone survivor of this long forgotten and agonizing journey took his place back at the window, crouching down towards the watery floor until he was sitting on his heels. “Yen was right,” he told the creatures screaming and swarming and fighting to get inside. “I’m not a monster hunter. I’m just a man. But I’ll be damned if I let a bigger monster stand in the way of saving people who matter more than a few pretty fuckin’ pennies. And sometimes you have to stop feeling...”  
  
Hearing a loud beep to his right, Geralt’s eyes shifted to the readout. A confident smirk played across his face, turning his sights back ahead of him, the countdown of 60 seconds to explosion reverberating throughout the now still hull. 

“Because, in life when you stop feeling. . .”

**_TEN SECONDS_ **

“That’s when you start thinking,” Geralt looked down at the rings in his shaking hand, harsh tears meeting the corners of his eyes for the first time in hours since this all began.

**_SEVEN SECONDS_ **

“And fuck me if I’m not gonna start thinking.”

**_FOUR SECONDS_ **

Clutching the rings once more, Geralt gave a hard stare ahead, smirking with confidence that could only be described as a triumphant cockiness as the resounding echo of **_ONE. INITIATING._ ** surrounded him in the uncool, unsympathetic, vastness of the ocean around him.

“So let’s light this shit up, Jas.”


End file.
